OIMB offers graduate degrees (PhD and MS) in biology for studies with a major focus on marine organisms and their interaction with the environment. Topics of study are based on the expertise and willingness of OIMB faculty to support a graduate student’s scientific investigation for his or her thesis. Faculty research interests include: Behavior, Biological Oceanography, Cell Biology, Climate change, Deep-sea Biology, Development, Ecology, Evolution, Life histories, Marine Invertebrates, Organismal Biology, Larval Biology and Ecology, and Systematics and Taxonomy.
Faculty who take graduate students:
Our graduate program is part of the Department of Biology; all degrees are awarded through that department. Students apply through the Department of Biology, though applications are reviewed by OIMB faculty. Acceptance into the graduate program is based on strength of the application, interest by one of the faculty in taking on a new student, and availability of financial support.
At OIMB, PhD students follow the same general patterns as students on main campus with three laboratory rotations in their first year, quarterly exams, and preparation of a research proposal and oral defense in their second year. PhD students in good standing are supported for at least four years. MS students are required to take 24 graded credits and conduct a research thesis. The MS degree can be completed in two years. General information about graduate studies in the Department of Biology can be found here. The Graduate Student Handbook describes the graduate program requirements and the specifics of the OIMB program.
Typical OIMB graduate students work at the OIMB in Charleston Oregon (110 miles, 2.5 hours from Eugene) and live on campus or nearby. Student offices and research space are in the laboratories of the faculty who advise them. Research with a field component is possible in the many different habitats near OIMB including the coastal ocean, open coast rocky intertidal (exposed and protected), subtidal benthic habitats, the extensive Coos Bay estuary including mud/sand flats and salt marshes, high energy sandy beaches and dune fields. Some students also conduct shipboard research in the deep sea.
